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4 Teamsters Officials Ousted Over Insurance Fraud Charge

Medical insurance is often hard for many people to obtain. But relatives and friends of some teamsters' union officials in Brooklyn had no trouble getting it improperly, according to Federal investigators.

The four top leaders of the union, Local 1205, were removed yesterday after an independent investigative panel charged that about 30 relatives and friends of the officials were able to qualify for the local's group medical plan after being recruited as fake union members. An audit by the panel found that the illicit members were allowed to use the plan even though the local's welfare fund had a deficit of $4.5 million last year and dental and eye-care benefits were cut for its 1,500 legitimate members.

Investigators said that the fake members paid $28 to $66 a week for medical and dental coverage, depending on how many members of their families were included.

Several relatives, the investigators said, qualified for the insurance by using their homes as sham offices where they said they were employed as teamster members of an insurance company, a fund-raising agency and a tree landscaping company.

The investigators also said that the local had "a history of nepotism" and that its president since November 1995, Theodore J. Brovarski, had violated Federal pension regulations by accepting salaries from both the union and its welfare funds when he was secretary-treasurer. He had combined salaries of $147,895 in 1994 and $115,105 last year, the investigators noted.

The investigation was made by the Independent Review Board, which was created in 1989 under a Federal court agreement to uproot misconduct and organized-crime influence in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the parent union.

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Acting on a report by the panel, Ron Carey, the International Teamsters president, removed the heads of Local 1205 yesterday and appointed an emergency trustee.

Mr. Brovarski and the other expelled officers did not return telephone calls left for them yesterday at the local's offices at 615 Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park.

The local's members work for lumber companies, auto repair shops, factories and small truckers in the city and on Long Island, and most earn less than $15 an hour. Since 1976 there have been no contested elections in the local, which was organized by Mr. Brovarski's father, Sigmund, in the 1940's.

As an example of fakery, the investigators cited the local's collective bargaining agreement with the G & F Marketing Company in Lake Ronkonkoma, L.I. Its address is the home of Paul Fusco, a son of Carmine and brother of Dominick Fusco. Dominick, the union's top officer, testified that he negotiated the agreement with his sister-in-law.

"Essentially," the report noted sarcastically, "Paul Fusco testified that he needed his brother as an employee representative to negotiate with his wife to have decent working conditions in his home."